Police search headquarters of Sarkozy's UMP party

Police searched the headquarters of France's UMP party as part of investigations linked to L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, including allegations that implicated a minister, the party said on Wednesday.

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The headquarters of France's UMP party in Paris Photo: AFP/GETTY

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Police searched the headquarters as part of investigations linked to L'Oreal heiress Liliane BettencourtPhoto: GETTY

12:09AM GMT 10 Mar 2011

The allegations have included tax evasion and illegal campaign funding that implicated French Labour Minister Eric Woerth.

"They essentially visited the floor which houses the finance offices and the basement for the archives," a source close to the UMP secretary-general Jean-Francois Cope told AFP.

The search by police financial investigators was carried out on Monday.

The Bettencourt/Woerth affair embarrassed President Nicolas Sarkozy's government last summer, when a former employee of Mrs Bettencourt alleged his UMP party had received illegal funding from the billionaire.